They watched the sky and saw ... nothing

Was it an advertising gimmick that went horribly wrong or a clever publicity stunt?

With a captive crowd that can top 40,000, the Big Day Out is a prime venue for creative advertisers wanting to reach the young.

No one has used the event more effectively than website nzgirl.co.nz and its advertising agency DDB.

DDB's effort last year - including light planes flying overhead towing banners reading "Scott Kelly has got a small dick" and "Don't Mess With NZ Girls - nzgirl.co.nz" - won the Best in Show award at the Axis awards for creative advertising excellence.

It also earned the agency a Gold Lion award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

But an attempt to wow the crowd with more male humiliation this year appears to have backfired.

A media release from DDB days before this year's Big Day Out suggested concertgoers "look to the skies" again as an attempt would be made to emulate last year's success.

But on the day nothing happened.

DDB and nzgirl have refused to comment on reports that a bid to snare and embarrass a disgraced boyfriend by flying him around Ericsson Stadium under a helicopter ended in chaos when he plummeted out of a harness.

"Was it a stunt that went horribly wrong?" asked advertising industry newsletter Fastline. "Or was nzgirl's 'ambient' [campaign] at BDO a masterful hoax, generating an intense gossip wave that will wash nzgirl and DDB all the way to gold at Cannes?"